"If you want to destroy a nation or a civilization you do not have to war, just destroy the libraries and arts."
Arts and literature unites the people and enlightens them. If there are no art forms or literature it will lead a civilization to decay. Even in 21st century creative artists are being attacked by various sections of the society. But the sad situation is that in many so called democratic countries governments are succumbing to vandals. These governments are restricting creative artists to express their ideas in to words, picture, music or film.
When we see attacks against creative artists, we might think that, are we living in a democracy..? Or are we living in a banana republic..?.In a democracy everybody has the right to express their opinion, but not by the act of violence. If anybody has any problem against any artists, their works, or it offends someone, they can go to the court and file a case. If they are creative enough they can protest with some artistic freedom.
An artist should get freedom to express his creativity. Government should not restrict their ideas. Because its government's responsibility to allow freedom of expression. They cannot restrict anyone from expressing ideas. Many artists have to flee from their own country; because they said something that some did not like. It is not a job of artists to please every section of the society. Their job is to show their creativity. Many countries there are sections of people who are narrow minded and fanatics, not ready to see the reality .They still live in the fool’s paradise. This small section is present in almost everywhere. When an artist sees the plight of people they tell the truth to the world through their art forms. Most of the time it disturbs the ruling class. So these ruling classes do not like the concept of artistic freedom.
Tasleema Nasrin, Salman Rushdie, Rohinton Mistry and M.F.Hussain are some artists who are still facing the restrictions of governments. In western countries also there are some restrictions on artists to express their ideas. But it is very less compared to Middle eastern, African and some of the Asian countries. Some artists deliberately offend some section of the society to get publicity. Only then these artists can sell their art works. Government should take action against these small sections of artists, who have less creativity and need more publicity. In my opinion government should allow creative artists freedom to express their idea. This will help to create good Harmony and tolerance among people.
